Dr. Nicholas Landau, a partner in the Intellectual Property group at Bradley Arant, volunteers his time helping low-income inventors as part of the BBVLP Patent Program. Below is his interview with the BBVLP:
Why is a pro bono patent program important?
American history is full of examples of great inventors who started out life very poor (some were even born into slavery, such as George Washington Carver). Obtaining patent protection can be a prohibitive expense for a person with a low income. Although a patent application may be filed by an inventor pro se, patents are a very complicated area of law; and even though the United States Patent Office treats pro se applicants relatively sympathetically, without a thorough understanding of the law and the ability to pay a patent attorney, it can be difficult or impossible to obtain an enforceable patent.
In addition, the America Invents Act of 2011 imposed a "first to file" system on American inventors that magnifies the importance of filing a patent application early in the development process. As a result, an inventor might jeopardize patent rights in the invention by waiting to file the patent application until obtaining business capital (which can be a lengthy process). This law has been particularly hard on low-income individual inventors, who do not have planned legal budgets or permanent in-house legal departments.
Are there other benefits to having a pro bono patent program?
Providing pro bono patent application drafting services to poor inventors not only benefits the client, it benefits the American economy by allowing new inventions to be developed and commercialized that otherwise would be abandoned by the inventor and forgotten. In the current "global economy," any popular consumer product is very likely to be imitated by cheaper offshore manufacturers.That calls into question an inventor's ability to recoup the costs of research and development. A patent can temporarily prevent cheap imports from flooding the newly created market."
Is there anything that you have learned from helping low-income inventors?
I have learned not to pre-judge a person's inventive savvy based on that person's background or current situation. As nearly every patent attorney knows, everyone has one invention in them. We also know that most of those inventions are either not technically feasible or not commercially viable. Although some of those who applied for the Pro Bono Patent Program did not have very good inventions, I have been surprised at the high percentage of those who do. The program seems to attract applicants who are serious about developing their invention, and have put some thought into how they will be commercially developed. The applicants come from a variety of backgrounds. We have at least one serial entrepreneur and one post-doctoral fellow, but most have never launched a business or studied engineering."
Do you think other patent attorneys would benefit from volunteering?
I recommend pro bono service to all attorneys. Our privileged position as attorneys should create a duty to contribute our time to ensure a legal system that provides its protections equitably. I was surprised when I began to practice as a patent attorney when I learned how few patent attorneys contribute their time to pro bono projects. Pro bono is nearly universal among attorneys who practice in other areas.
My role model as an attorney has always been my mother. Before she retired, she had an intense international practice in commodities futures law. She worked as hard as anyone in the profession, sometimes being asked by her clients to fly to their offices in Europe on less than a day's notice. Nonetheless, she never neglected to provide pro bono services, in some years billing 50% of her time to pro bono work, and in fact she founded entire pro bono programs while maintaining her private practice. Even the busiest attorneys should allocate some amount of time for pro bono work.
If you are a patent attorney and would like to help expand the great work of Dr. Landau, please contact Graham Hewitt. Please click here to read Dr. Landau's biography. 
